Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Partnership Delivery Group minutes: March 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Care Inspectorate
• CELCIS
• Community Justice Scotland
• Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Children and Young Peoples Centre for Justice
• Higher Education Institutions Heads of Social Work representatives
• Improvement Service
• NHS Education for Scotland
• Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW)
• Scottish Government
• Social Work Education Partnership
• Social Work Scotland (SWS)
• Social Work Scotland Workforce and Resources Committee Learning and Development Sub-group representatives
• Scottish Social Services Council
• Who Cares? Scotland

Items and actions

Overview

This was the third meeting of the Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Partnership Delivery Group. The purpose of this meeting was to give partners a forum to provide updates on their specific actions within the work plan, and to discuss how best we can work together with our partners/ stakeholders.

Introductions

The meeting began by the Chair noting apologies from members. All members in attendance provided brief introductions. Apologies noted from representatives from the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and the Higher Education Institutions Heads of Social Work.

Update from trauma responsive social work services team

Scottish Government (SG) colleagues provided various updates on progress on actions and recruitment:

• the implementation and Learning Team Leader is now in place

• three practitioners due to start on Monday 17 April

• progressing recruitment of clinical psychologist and support officer posts

• learning materials currently being reviewed and working through endorsement process

• progressing work to engage CSWO’s in consideration of approach to early adopter sites

Ongoing co-design with lived experience

Colleagues highlighted the amount of co-production work currently being funded. SG colleagues to look at how we potentially link up some of these workstreams.

Improvement Service and Scottish Government provided a short introduction into the Authentic Voice (AV) Project currently being funded by Scottish Government and confirmed that the TRSWS work will be aligned with this workstream.

The first pilot of AV project in Dundee due to report in the next couple months. This may provide some key learning which could be useful for the trauma responsive social work services workstream.

SG are keen to not duplicate work and not ask individuals questions they have been asked before. SG are looking to build on existing work and draw on any learning that has been completed. 

Updates from Partners

Each partner provided an update from their organisations on their views of the programme or updates on their specific actions within the work plan. Some points of reflection:

• social work services want this specific learning but mindful of workforce and capacity issues. It would be important to acknowledge this context
• the communications of this programme needs to be clear that we are building on existing learning and work, being clear that this is not completely new to social work
• the importance of implementation support and organisational change in the programme
• systems wide context not fully reflected within the narrative and commitments
• Community Justice Scotland reviewing current learning material to ensure trauma content is included throughout
• CELCIS looking at current internal processes to ensure they are trauma-informed. CELCIS have a strong implementation support offer and could be utilised for some specific work
• Who Cares? Scotland currently have a wealth of data relevant to trauma. There is a potential to commission some work on what they already know about specific topics. Who Cares? Scotland are keen to ensure that the trauma learning is embedded throughout all care-experienced interfaces
• Scottish Government NTTP team highlighted that they are awaiting budget confirmation for 23/24. Trauma delivery plan and Mental Health strategy due to be published in Spring, alongside launch of the new NTTP website
• Care Inspectorate recently signed up to the leadership pledge. They are currently looking at their internal processes to ensure their organisation is trauma-responsive
• Children and Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ) working on supporting implementation of the Care and Justice Bill. Working on a Scottish Government funded project ‘Re-imagining secure care’ which will include trauma-responsive practice
• the importance of independent advocacy, especially in children’s services
• NHS Education for Scotland highlighted their work in increasing their universal offer and the work going on in substance use. The trauma framework for victims and witnesses services due to publish in May and two new animations (dementia and learning disabilities) due to launch in May
• Improvement Service redrafting the Quality Improvement Framework following the consultation feedback and hope to publish in May
• Social Work Education Partnership (SWEP) raised they are early in the process of increasing trauma training for practice educators. SWEP also linking in with Practice Learning Qualifications (PLQ) to explore increasing trauma content in courses
• SSSC going out to consultation on possible changes to Codes of Practice and Continuous Professional Learning Framework
• the potential to add action around ensuring people with lived experience of care and trauma are supported through social work education and practice placements
• the chair provided an update on the Advanced Practice Framework, including information about a series of forthcoming engagement events

Next steps/actions

• partners to provide feedback on work plan and update their specific actions by 31 March 2023
• TRSWS team to arrange discussion with Who Cares? Scotland to discuss links to any potential engagement activities 
• TRSWS Programme Lead to pick up specific course content questions with Community Justice Scotland colleague
• TRSWS Programme Lead to arrange a meeting with CELCIS to discuss their current implementation support offers
• Scottish Government to highlight within context section the interface between social work and other services
• SWEP to connect with Who Cares? Scotland around widening access to social work education and practice placements
• SWEP to explore the potential links to the work further education courses have done around care-experienced bursaries